CS_summit 4 Champions: Team Vitality

The fourth edition of the cs_summit concluded with Team Vitality beating the competition in a convincing manner. The cs_summit 4 champions defeated Team Liquid in the Grand Final to lift their third trophy this year.

Day 1

Vitality prevailed in two double Overtimes

The first day went very well for the eventual cs_summit 4 champions. Team Vitality faced Ghost Gaming and NRG Esports in two very similar duels. The first map in both meetings went into double Overtime, and Vitality won the second map relatively easy.

The first Best-of-1 match against Ghost kicked off on Mirage. Ghost Gaming had a huge advantage as they were leading 14-7 and Vitality had to clinch at least eight rounds in a row in order to not lose the game. It was a tough feat to accomplish, but the French squad managed to do that, so they earned the match point. However, Ghost Gaming didn’t allow Vitality to make a complete comeback, at least not before Overtime, as they won the last round in regular time and took the game to Overtime.

After the first six rounds in Overtime, the result was still tied, so the game went into double Overtime. There, however, Team Vitality prevailed (22-20) to win the first Best-of-1 match at the event.

The second Best-of-1 match versus Ghost took place on Overpass, where Ghost had an advantage after 10 rounds, but then NBK and co. took control over the wheel and won ten consecutive rounds. Given that Ghost managed to clinch just two rounds up to the end of the match, the game ended in Team Vitality’s favor (16-9).

Something similar happened in a duel between NRG and Vitality as well. The first map (Nuke) went into double Overtime after Vitality caught up, and the second map (Inferno) finished with a dominant result in Vitality’s favor (16-7).

ENCE split maps with Renegades

In the remaining matches on the first day of cs_summit 4, Team Liquid beat Ghost Gaming on both maps, and NRG Esports defeated Renegades on Mirage (16-13) and Train (16-8).

Also, ENCE failed to take all 6 points versus Renegades although they had a big advantage on the first map. Namely, ENCE had unexpectedly good half on T side on Train (10-5) but didn’t succeed in exploiting the fact that Train favors CT side, so Renegades came back and won the game with minimal advantage (16-14). Fiennes (ENCE) bounced back on Mirage (16-12) after showing the much better game on CT side. As a result, ENCE won just half of the points in their first meeting, although they were favorites for taking all 6 points.

Day 2

Team Vitality upset Team Liquid

Day 2 of cs_summit 4 started off with Team Vitality upsetting the second best team in the world. The first map was Nuke where Vitality demolished NA team. RpK and apEX played so good they both ended up with a rating above 2.00. Team Liquid couldn’t do much on their worst map, so they managed to barely win three rounds. It was a shameful loss for such a good team.

They had a chance to respond in the same manner on their pick, Mirage. Nevertheless, cs_summit 4 champions dominated Team Liquid in the first half (11-4) and nitr0 and his team couldn’t recover from such a bad half. Hence, the French team led by excellent ZywOo (34/4/16) secured the second map as well to maintain their perfect 6-0 score.

Source: twitter.com/RpKTANKK

ENCE Split Aaps

ENCE played two almost identical duels versus Team Liquid and NRG Esports. The first Best-of-1 match against Team Liquid kicked off on Nuke. Team Liquid had a big lead at half-time (11-4). However, when ENCE got the role of defending sites instead of occupying them, AleksiB and co. started winning many more rounds. Unlike in duel between Astralis and ENCE, when Astralis couldn’t catch up after being 11-4 down at half-time, ENCE managed to do that against Team Liquid. In the continuation of the game, ENCE conceded only three rounds to complete the big comeback.

However, they got embarrassed by Team Liquid on the second map (Dust 2). Despite winning opening two rounds, Dust 2 was disastrous for the Finnish team. Team Liquid won 16 out of 17 remaining rounds. Therefore, the final score was 16-3 in Liquid’s favor.

We saw something similar in a duel between ENCE and NRG. On the first map (Train), ENCE bounced back after worse half-time on T side, and NRG dismantled ENCE on the second map (Overpass) with scoreline 16-3.

Day 3

Day of tied meetings

The third day of cs_summit 4 featured five meetings, and four of them ended in a draw.

In the first meeting, Team Vitality faced ENCE on Overpass and Nuke. The French squad easily defeated ENCE on Overpass (16-7), but ENCE bounced back on Nuke. After losing the first half with score 9-6, ENCE dominated Team Vitality on CT side without allowing them to win a single round. Thus, ENCE became the first team that clinched a map versus Vitality at the event so far.

The second duel that ended in a draw was between ENCE and Ghost. Fiennes convincingly defeated Ghost on Mirage (16-6) and had a huge lead on half-time on Overpass(11-4) to take full 6 points for the first time at cs_summit 4. However, Ghost didn’t throw a towel in, and once again showed a good CT side on Overpass. So, they caught up and eventually prevailed in the game (16-14). Therefore, ENCE finished the group stage of cs_summit 4 with five tied duels.

The third duel of the day also finished tied after Team Vitality and Renegades splitting two maps (Vertigo, Mirage). Finally, Team Liquid ended this short streak of tied duels after defeating Renegades on Nuke (16-8) and Dust 2 (16-11). In the last meeting, Team Liquid beat NRG on Vertigo (16-13) but lost on Dust 2 (16-12).

When everything was set and done, Ghost Gaming and Renegades dropped out of the event in Group Stage. Team Vitality topped the group in a dominant manner with 24 points, followed by Team Liquid, NRG, and ENCE.

Playoffs

Vitality almost dropped out versus ENCE

The first Semi-final started off on Mirage. On this map, the momentum was switching sides a lot. Both teams were leading at some point of the match and both had to catch up. In the end, Team Vitality was close to putting the game to bed (14-12) but failed to do so as ENCE played so well in the last four rounds.

Things then moved to Overpass where the Frenchmen had a relatively easy job. The Cs_summit 4 champions showed a good game on T side on one of their best maps. They had a big lead and ENCE couldn’t get back to the game, so Vitality closed the second leg with ending score 16-8.

The map of decision, however, was insane. Considering that Inferno is the worst ENCE’s map, and one of the best maps of Team Vitality, no one expected such a tight game. Regardless, NBK and co. were on the edge of elimination but miraculously bounced back. ENCE demonstrated a real dominance throughout the first part of the game as they were leading 13-4 at one point. It looked like the game was over, and ENCE was going to play the second final in a row. Nevertheless, Team Vitality showed they had a strong mental game as they caught up and even earned a match point.

ENCE took the game to Overtime somehow. But, Vitality won all 4 rounds to reach the Grand Final.

Team Liquid easily bested NRG just to lose to Vitality in Grand Final

The best North American team had a pretty easy job versus NRG on Mirage and Overpass. They beat them on both maps with an identical score (16-8). The second best NA team was in the back seat during the entire Semi-final and couldn’t stand a chance against the IEM Sydney champions. So, Team Liquid book another meeting with Team Vitality to try to win the second title in a row.

Considering that Team Liquid and Vitality haven’t met each other before cs_summit 4, the Americans were also looking for revenge as they previously lost two maps in Group Stage. But, it didn’t happen.

The young French prospect, ZywOo, played a very good final. On the first map (Nuke), ZywOo had 24 kills, 4 assists and 84% KAST. Vitality dominated Team Liquid in the first half on Nuke and quickly earned map points (15-4). Liquid postponed their loss a little bit by winning five in a row, but their effort was in vain.

The second map (Overpass) wasn’t much better for the American roster. ZywOo kept playing brilliantly ending the game with 22 kills and 7 assists. At half-time, Vitality was leading 11-4, so the second pistol round was very important for Liquid for a potential comeback. They had a good situation as ZywOo had to fight alone against three Liquid players. Nevertheless, the young AWPer pulled out the important 1v3 clutch to destroy any hope of Liquid. Of course, they didn’t surrender but kept fighting, but Vitality eventually closed the game to become cs_summit 4 champions.

This is their third title this year after Charleroi Esports and WePlay event. They won $52,000 plus additional $12,000 for Group Winnings. On top of that, their youngest player, ZywOo got an MVP award.